BRADY'S BUNCH

Clay Felker, back in New York and undergoing a series of radiation treatments, put his fall seminar on hold at Berkeley but plans to be back teaching in the spring. Meanwhile, he's actively helping the folks who run New York plan the weekly's 30th anniversary next April.

Ed Kelly sends along the October "fashion" issue of Travel & Leisure and reports ad pages (at 200-plus) top last October's by 50%. Year to date it's 100 ad pages ahead of '96.

Sure, they play winning football, but aren't those Denver Bronco uniforms the worst? They're uglier than Northwestern's, for God's sake.

And what shape is TV Guide in as newly promoted Publisher Rob Margolis takes over? Rob tells me, "through August, per PIB, our pages are up 9.6%, and revenue a whopping 18%." Hot "new biz" categories are package goods, household products and automotive. As noted, Rob is talking up a new Web page being sponsored by AOL, as "a new advertising category for the magazine."

Why did Quest, Chris Meigher's classy mag that's done so well, switch editors? Two reasons, says Mr. Meigher. One, Brooks Peters wants to write more and edit less or not at all (he's continuing as a contributor) and two, new ed Kristina Stewart, from Hamptons and, more significantly, with that good Brit magazine training, can skew Quest younger. What else? Meigher's looking at interior design. But isn't that field. . .? "Crowded?" Chris completes the sentence, "sure, and so was food when we started Saveur."

We knew Time Inc.'s In Style was looking good. Publisher Ann Jackson tells us how good. "I think we are setting a record for running a profit at the tender age of 3.5 years." The September issue with 145 ad pages was the largest, only to be quickly topped by October with 160. Ann thinks they have a shot at closing the year with 1,300 pages and circ is pushing a million (at midyear it was 966,000, 21% over rate base).

How are they doing at The Village Voice and its Left Coast sister, LA Weekly? David Schneiderman reports the latter just published a 400-page issue (which he sent along) that he says is the biggest in the history of "the alternative press." As for the Voice, which went free in April of '96, its circ is up to a quarter of a million.

Helen Gurley Brown isn't precisely withering on the vine. She writes, "just back from Indonesia etc. (etc. is slightly south of Pago Pago) and I'm trying to finish a book and take care of jury duty. . ."

I'm late on this but huzzahs to Vanity Fair's new ad director, Leslie Picard.

Single Living, edited by Laurie Sue Brockway (for a circ of 300,000 singles), is a year old this month.